Lara Smithson

Reaching Out: Gesture, Texture & Text Symposium

Tue 11 February 2025

Downing College

This symposium builds upon the success of the three-day investigation into ‘gesture’ held at St John's College, Oxford, in January 2024. Arising from this investigation was the notion that gestures can be bound within space and time; that they can enact – even preserve – meaning across the structures of images, texts, and performances.

Continuing the investigative nature of the overarching ‘gesture’ project, this symposium aims to look more closely at the interrelations between the gestural and the textural, with a particular focus on the written word.

The event will be accompanied by a small exhibition entitled 'A ribbon unfurling' by the artist Lara Smithson. Tea/coffee will be provided, and the symposium will be followed by a drinks reception at 6pm.

The programme will run as follows:

INTRODUCTION: 2-2.10pm

SESSION 1 (2.10-3.40pm):

Dr Ewan Jones (University of Cambridge)
Kinesic Intelligence: Gesture and Iconicity in the work of Guillemette Bolens

Dr Francesco Giusti (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Shareable Language: Lyric After the End of Lyric

Dr Andrew Sackin-Poll (University of Cambridge)
Gestures under the Letters

COFFEE BREAK: (3.40-4pm)

SESSION 2 (4-5.30pm):

Dr Jennifer Johnson (University of Oxford/ Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
Ann Quin and Sandra Blow: Gesture in an Expanded (Textural) Field

Lily Stone (University of Cambridge)
Tactile Literacy: Reaching Beyond Reading

Dr Natalie Ferris (University of Bristol)
"I lived that far from words": Susan Hiller and Automatic Writing

WRAP-UP (5.30-6pm), with Lara Smithson (artist)

DRINKS RECEPTION: (6-8pm)

Cost: Free